An Urgent Plea for a Child in China ~ Please Read ~

This plea for help has been published on many listservs by a prominet member of the adoption community. Please read the following, look into your heart and give what you can. Here is the Urgent Plea....

Occasionally one comes across a story that gives you renewed hope in happy endings and the power of hope...and makes you grateful that there are families in this world that will risk so much to bring hope to a child. Hundreds of thousands of children live as orphans in China...and as they get older, their hope for finding a family dims and then goes out at the age of 14. If they are lucky enough to have their file sent to the CCAA, they might be adopted, but if that dreaded 14th birthday rolls around before their family finds them, they are doomed to a life that most of us can't even imagine. With little education and no one to turn to, their life most likely includes begging on the streets. For girls, the chances of adoption are better...for boys, not so much. For a 13 year old boy with a visible special need, the chance is slim indeed. Right now there is a boy in Henan – a beautiful boy with a smile whose dimples melt the heart. He's been looking for his family for a long time...waiting and waiting and waiting and going to bed at night with the hope of a home on his heart. His orphanage saw his spirit...how wonderful he is with the younger children...his artistic abilities...and sent his file to the CCAA to try to find him a home. The SWI had the faith that a family would see this boy and realize his potential and a family did! They began the paperwork...but then were unable to continue. What now? Time was running out…this child would be unadoptable in a few short months. I remember the pleas that IAAP put out into the adoption world to find this boy's true family...and the commitment they made to help a family get it done. A family stepped forward and under amazing circumstances was able to prepare a dossier and get it to China in June. Can you even imagine? They got their dossier together in less than a month!! But they'd been home only half a year with their little daughter from China...and would need some time to get the money together. The willingness to step into this young man's life, to take the risk and do what it takes to bring him home is stunning in it's faith. Who could believe that it could be done? The Kubicek's believed and because of their amazing capacity to hope and trust that it would workout Fu Yang is coming home. Imagine their shock when they found out on the 4th of July that they would have to be in China just a few weeks after their dossier was sent. He desperately needs his family to sign his adoption papers by July 15 – just one week from today. He turns 14 in ONE WEEK!!! Where would the money come from? They need $5,000 more to bring this child home...how can this possible happen? I know how this can happen...I've SEEN it happen. Six months ago I set up a website to try to replace a grant for Django...a child whose grant was removed by the donor after they discovered the sensitive nature of Django's special need. In just over a month the Chinese adoption community came together and raised just under $5,000. IT CAN BE DONE!!!! At times a situation comes up in our community where we need to pull together and MAKE A DIFFERENCE in the life of a child. This is one of those situations...and the TIME IS SHORT!!!! This isn't about a family raising money to bring home a child...it's about a COMMUNITY coming together to give this child the gift of a family. Please, can you give $5, $10, $50 to Fu Yang??? THIS CHILD HAS ONE WEEK LEFT BEFORE HE WILL NEVER EVER HAVE A HOME. It is very easy to contribute, as they have a ChipIn set up...all it takes is a few clicks: http://helpbringfuyanghome.blogspot.com/ I salute the Kubicek family for their willingness to believe in miracles...let's make one happen for them!

Ethan is Two Today!!

Ethan turned two years old today in China. We celebrated his birthday here and sent him a care package of goodies for him and his friends in the orphanage. No child should ever have to be without their family on their birthday. Ethan and Katie will never know another birthday without the love of our family.

I have begun a new website to document our journey to bring Ethan home. We would love for you to check it out at www.Ethansjourneyhome.com . Please leave a comment in the guestbook so that he can read how much he was thought about during the wait for his arrival home.

LOG IN DATE!!!

Our agency notified us that our dossier was logged into the Chinese Center of Adoptive Affairs on June 4, 2007 (our 7th wedding anniversary :) That means we are about 30 days into an approximate 75 day wait for our Letter of Acceptance. Once we sign and return that document we can expect to receive travel approval about 3 weeks later. We are cautiously optimistic that we may travel by early October to adopt Ethan and bring him home forever!!

Honing our Swimming Skills

Katie Starr has been taking swimming lessons. They are really more of basic survivor skill lessons for beginners. Living in South Florida where there is water virtually everywhere there is a huge need to begin early training in the water. Katie began her lessons about 3 or 4 weeks ago and the first few lessons were torture. Thankfully the lessons are 10 minutes in length so the crying and screaming were over quite quickly (and that was me ~ just kidding~! We go three times a week and by the end of week two our Katie was transformed. She began to enjoy the lessons and now we can't get her shoes off fast enough once we get there...she loves it! I will spare you the video of lesson 2 as it is heart wrenching and I will skip to a more recent lesson where she is beginning to build confidence and make great strides. A good friend who is in my FCC Group told me about the lessons and her kiddos are in the time slots following Katie. The first video is our Katie and her friend Cady who wore the same bathing suit to our last lesson. They both looked disgusted at the thought of being caught in the same swimsuit ~Grin~ The following video is the highlight reel of one of her lessons.

Katie and Cady ~ Double Vision




Swimming Highlight Reel

A Weekend of Fun

Sorry it has been awhile since I last posted. The week before last we were up in Orlando for a Mei Dreams (May 05 DTC) reunion and we had a blast. We were also thrilled to be able to hook up with another family of a Wuwei Princess. Kylie and her mommy and daddy, Judy and Sean met us at the reunion and were lovely enough to invite us back to their beautiful home. The girls had a blast together and so did their parents. We look forward to getting together again soon.

While we were up in the land of the Mouse we of course hit all of the parks. We did not overdo it as we knew that Katie would hit her limit each day at nap time so we got to the parks early and then came back in the afternoon, napped Katie and then went out for more fun each day. Katie was her usual happy go lucky self and was a wonderful little traveler. I am posting a couple of videos of Katie and Kylie and then I will let you view the rest of the photos from the weekend of fun with links (there were way too many to post)

This video of our two Wuwei Princesses show the screaming fun the had with each other. The first video show a little game that they started playing where Katie would pretend to fall and Kylie would give her a hand up and then the running and screaming would start again.

Click here to see pics of Disney and Katie meeting Kylie
Click here to see Mei Dreams Reunion pics

Two New Pictures of our Son

The person that sent them to me commented on how handsome he is but how he obviously does not like to have his picture taken. We cannot wait to put a smile on his beautiful little face.

Hap MomMom to you!!

Let me begin this post by telling you that Katie calls me MomMom like it is one word. It sounds so adorable and to tell you the truth, I hope she always calls me that as I love it so much.

Now, on the to the cute anecdote ~ Katie Starr is totally into the Birthday Song ever since it was sung to her about 100 times in the week surrounding her birthday. She loves hearing it and then pretends to blow candles out at the end of the song. Tonight when I was putting her to bed and was changing her clothes she was babbling away and then I heard what sounded like the birthday song. I listened closer and this is what I heard.

Hap MomMom to you
Hap dear MomMom, Hap to you...then she blew the candles out.

I was totally cracking up because it was so darn cute and I was thrilled at the amount of words she was putting together. This past week there has been huge gains made in her language.

Then she began to repeat the song but this time she sang

Hap Dad to you
Hap Nan to you - That is for my mom
Hap Pop to you - for my dad
Hap Jus to you - for Justin
Hap Dog to you - For our Chihuahua Gabby

Now I was rolling with laughter; man oh man; having a two year old is wonderful. I can't wait to have two of them. Now you know I am CRAZY..hehehe!!

Lucky Number 7

This is the number of years that Marc and I have been married. On June 4, 2000 we were officially united in matrimony. It has been the best seven years of my life. Life with Marc is all about love, partnership and laughter. We totally speak the same language. There is no one else in the universe that I can imagine would be a better match for me than him. Having a daughter has brought a new dimension to our marriage. It amazes me daily to see Marc be a father to the amazing Katie Starr. I always knew that he would make a wonderful father as he was so awesome with Justin. Like everyone else we have our moments but they are few and far between. I am a passionate and intense person and Marc is a perfect complement to my personality as he is as steady as they come. He doesn't let much upset him and he keeps me grounded. I on the other hand give him a run for his money.

I predict that the next seven years will be even better than the first as we have so much to look forward to. Happy Anniversary Hubs!! Love, Your Starr

A Potential Olympian

Our Starr leads a very active life. She has swimming class 3 times a week, takes a music class and a play and share class at a local family center and takes a gymnastics class once a week. Since Marc and I are both fortunate enough to be able to share child care duties due to our flexible work schedules we try to enrich Katie's life with some fun activities during the week.

Katie is very active and super athletic and loves her gymnastics class very much. The directors tell us that she has a great deal of natural athletic ability but most of all she just plain ol' loves it!! Today was show day so family and friends could come watch. The children were able to show off their newly honed skills. Katie had a ball and then received a medal. Boy did she love that. When she received her medal she jumped up on the podium and yelled TaaaaaaDaaaaaa and threw up her hands!! What a ham bone..LOL Here are a few cute pics from her class; enjoy!

I have to post these two gems for posterity

I often think as I am sure many of you do that I have to write down the cute things that Katie Starr is doing and saying before they escape my memory forever. Tonight I will share a couple of funny anecdotes with you and for posterity.

This evening we went to our favorite Pizzeria to get a Pie. While we were waiting for our food to be brought out Katie colored. I took one of the crayons and drew a line. I asked her if she could draw a line as well. She drew a line and then roared. We looked at her completely puzzled and asked her why she was roaring. She said "Lion". I started laughing and said "No, Katie; mommy said Line. She kept roaring and saying Lion. I never thought of Lion and Line as homonyms.

After that bit of cuteness our pizza was brought out as well as Katie's spaghetti. Katie always ends up looking like she went through a spaghetti fight by the time that she is finished as there is so much sauce all over her. While we were enjoying our food Katie looks at me and says Mom; Uh oh!! and points to a tiny spot of sauce on my pinkie. We laughed so hard at the thought of her thinking that my tiny spot was worthy of an Uh oh!! when she was painted in red.

We have so many of these moments every day and they totally make me want to freeze our daughter at this age as she is so adorable right now; just too cute for words :) Thanks for listening to this rambling mom; I just had to get it down before it was gone forever.

Today is the day......

......that we are DTC for Ethan!!!!! That means that our dossier is winging it's way to China. Now we pray for a quick Log in date and then the wait begins. It is taking about 90 - 120 days from the time that your dossier is sent to China to receive your LOA (Letter of Acceptance) and then another 3-4 weeks for TA (Travel Approval). We hope to travel in the fall.

We are very happy to be one step closer to our son.

A Fun Adult Weekend

I had an fun and relaxing weekend and there were no children involved; that is where the relaxing part came in.

My sister was in Florida for business so on Friday I took the 3 hour drive to where she was staying to spend the night with her. My doll of a husband took care of our girl. My sister Jane who is awesome fun was at a convention and many of her co workers and associates who are also friends joined us for the evening. They also know how to have a good time so needless to say we had a blast!! I came home the following day and regrouped as Marc and I were going away to a resort in Marco Island on Sunday morning. This was a birthday gift from Marc and Justin as Justin said he would take two days off of work to watch Katie Starr for us and Marc made all of the plans at the resort for us and scheduled a spa day for me. We had so much fun just being a couple which we have not done in the year that we have been back from China. We ate, drank, went to the beach, went to the spa and slept...heaven!! Katie did beautifully with her big brother and saw her Nana and Papa as well so she hardly missed us. When we got home though she was beyond thrilled and we had a wonderful reunion with her.

A huge thank you to the men in my life for providing such a wonderful weekend. I love you both so very much!

Here is a fun video from just before we left. It is Katie's impersonation of a lion. She kinda looks like the cowardly lion from the Wizard of Oz...too funny!!

May 14, 2006 and May 14, 2007 ~ What a Difference a Year Makes

Last year on this day we received a sleeping Katie Starr. We could not wake her up in the meeting room where she was handed to us and she would not wake up until much later in our hotel room. At first she was bewildered, then terrified and finally despondent. It is no secret that our first months with Katie were quite challenging indeed. It took a long time to win our sweet girl's trust as she had been in a very loving foster home for most of her first year of life. The first picture was the only one that we got of her awake that day.

Now, one year later take a look at the joy in our Starr's face in the second picture as she celebrates with her Papa (Grandfather) at our one year "forever in our arms day" celebration this evening.

We have come so far and we are so thankful for our Katie Starr!!

Happy Mother's Day and One Year with Katie Starr

Mother's Day has always been a very special day in our family as I know it is in each of yours but Mother's Day 2006 was made that much more special in our family by the addition of Katie Starr into our lives. When we celebrate the holiday this year we will also be marking one year since our "forever in our arms day." I will never forget that day. It is just as indelibly etched into my memory as the birth of my son.

I have been a mom for over 22 years and quite simply it is the role in life that I love the most. I love being a mom to my adult son Justin who I now call friend and I love being a mom to my very 2 year old Katie who has quite simply rocked all of our worlds to the core in the best way possible. I long to mother my son to be, Ethan, who needs my mothering so very much.

Happy Mother's day from our home to yours and of course a huge happy Mother's Day to the waiting mommies; your child is out there and destiny will ultimately unite you. You are already mommies and it is just a matter of time before your child is in your arms. We cannot wait to celebrate that day with you.

With love and gratitude,

Lori - Mommy to Justin Bennett, Katie Starr Hongshan and Ethan Frederick Zhiqing; still in China - we love you Ethan!!

P.S. The troops are feeling much better. Justin was hit the hardest and is still a little under the weather but all are much improved. Thanks for your well wishes XXOO

Update - Our 24 pound daughter's germs pack a powerful punch

Miss Katie is on the mend and is doing much better than she was 2 days ago. The men in her life on the other hand cannot say the same. Last evening after falling asleep I was awakened by the sound of Marc getting out of bed and walking to the bathroom. Marc never leaves our bed to go to the bathroom (I cannot say the same for myself :) so I knew that something was wrong. I got up after a few minutes and knocked on the door and did not hear anything. I walked in and found him laying on the floor. He was so sick that he could not even make it back to the bed. I helped him up and as we were walking back to the bed I heard the sound of retching from the other bathroom down the hall. Both of my guys were sick as dogs :( This went on all night and I mean all night. I was back and forth between them and checking on Katie the entire night. It was horrible!!!

Now it is 10:00 PM almost 24 hours later and Marc is on the mend but Justin is still very sick. Please send out all of your good thoughts and energy if you will so that we have a calmer evening than last night and that he gets some rest.

All they could say today was that they could not believe that little girl could make them sick enough to bring them to their knees.

Something is rotten in Denmark if the Starr does not want to eat :(

The following post might be TMI for people with queasy stomachs...

After having raised the world's pickiest eater; my son Justin (sorry J it is the truth!) it has been absolutely wonderful to have a child that totally enjoys eating. Katie loves to eat a wide variety of things and will at least try everything that we give her. I knew immediately when she would not eat breakfast (not even a bite) that something was wrong. Mommy is always right!

She had woken up early this morning and Marc took her out of her crib and took her straight into our bed. After turning down breakfast Marc took her out of her highchair and took her in her room to undress her for her bath. That is when he smelled something BAD. He looked over and saw that she had vomited in her crib - EVERYWHERE :(

We cleaned it all up and I went to work. Later in the morning Marc called me up and said in a totally serious voice "you must come home now" I asked why and he proceeded to tell me that she had had a "man size case of diarrhea". He had heard a noise and by the time he got to her it was all the way up to her belly button and up her back inside her diaper. He of course said that he was kidding about me coming home and that he could handle everything quite fine. By the time that I came home she had been having a-- blast all afternoon and the crib had been changed once again and she had been bathed three times. Marc looked worn out and so did Katie.

Katie Starr still will not eat and is running a temp but thankfully she is drinking like a champ. We called the doctor and she told us that this tummy bug is very prevalent right now. I am sure it is in the same bug family that made our friend Lily so sick this past weekend. She said it should run it's course in a 24-48 hour period.

Told you something was rotten in Denmark or should I say South Florida.

I will keep you posted.

Cinderella ain't got nothing on our Starr!!

Katie is our little helper. She loves to help whether you want her to or not. Last night she decided that she wanted to sweep the front walk and the driveway and of course was cute as a button doing it.

Q and A

Q) You check in on your daughter and you find her in this position; do you dare move her for fear of waking her?

A) No, you run to get your camera so that you can take a picture to post on your blog and get outta there asap!!

Ethan, we are thinking of you baby......

Today I stayed home from work as I am still ill. The Dr. diagnosed a bad throat infection and I am on antibiotics and trying desperately to get back up to speed.

While I was home today we received Ethan's finding ad that I ordered from Research China. For those that do not know what a finding ad is; it is an ad placed in the newspaper of the province where the baby lives describing the baby and giving their date of birth as well as abandonment date. It is usually the first photo of the child that the parent will have and is usually taken close to their birth. Ethan was a bit older when he was left at the orphanage and he was quite ill so I do have a picture that predates this newest one that was given to me by the woman who sponsored Ethan's surgery. The pic from this ad seems to be when he was about 9 months old and after his surgery. He is so beautiful is described in the ad as having a rectangular face, black hair and light skin. His eyes are enormous and very dark. He is so slight in the picture; just a little peanut. His latest growth report shows he has come along way since that picture was taken. From all reports the orphanage that he is in is taking very good care of him. My heart broke when I saw that he was among approximately 175-200 children posted in the paper that week as I also ordered a copy of the entire newspaper. It is so mind boggling when you look at all of the precious faces of these babies that do not have a family to love and nurture them as they deserve.

Ethan, we are working so hard to finish all of the paperwork up and get you home where you belong. We love you and think about you all the time.

**The picture above was taken the other day when I was out with my two children. I cannot wait for the day when we can complete this picture with Ethan.

Ramblings of a 46 year old Mommy with a fever

I am sure that you are a bit curious about the title of this post as it is a bit strange.

Tuesday, I turned 46 years old and became sick to my stomach and not because I turned 46 years old ~smirk~ I actually had some bug working on me that had me holding my tummy. Unfortunately, I also had to emcee a luncheon/meeting for about 80 people that day and it was a moment by moment exercise in mind over matter. The wonderful perk to butching up and not asking someone else to cover it were the beautiful flowers that my husband sent to the luncheon to be delivered to my table and the cake that my father brought in and then lead the room in a boisterous rendition of the birthday song while tears welled up in my eyes.

I left the meeting and crawled into bed; subsequently calling off a birthday dinner that we were to have that evening. Now anyone that knows me at all knows that I had to be mighty sick to do that since 1.) I am the ultimate birthday girl who loves everything birthday; most especially my own and 2.) I never miss a meal. I had obviously seen better days.

The crazy thing about the virus is that it has swept through our happy home as well as my place of business like the plague and that it has moved through my body in fits and starts. It started 2 weeks ago with a dizzy spell and a general feeling of malaise, then I thought I was doing better until the congestion set in, then I dried up and my ears started hurting, then came the stomach issues and now I sit here in a Saturday evening with a fever, sore throat and chills. OK, enough already, I am going to will this bad boy bug from my body and banish it into exile.

On another note; Last evening after the rescheduled birthday dinner we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things that turned into a SUV full of things when I had the most melancholy moment concerning a sullen teenager and our Starr. While we were checking out the grumpy young woman began loading our cart. Katie turned to her and said "hi" and gave her best 2 year old huge smile and wave. The girl grunted at her; barely acknowledging her. Katie of course did not know the difference and continued to stare at the girl in wonder and amazement as she packed and loaded groceries as if she was the best thing since sliced bread. I looked at my daughter's beautiful and innocent face and felt such love and gratitude for the stage that she is currently in with all of it's purity and wide eyed wonder. Then I felt sadness that she will lose that to a certain extent as we all do. Of course, I realize that she will never be that sullen teenage (I will not allow it..LOL) but she will not be the uncensored and innocent being that she is now in a couple of years. Another happier wave of emotion washed over as it occurred to me that having children allows us to enter that unspoiled territory again and see the joy and wonder of life through their eyes during the baby and toddler years. Now that I am writing this it seems a bit odd that this all happened while we were walking to the car with our groceries; but it did.

This morning I woke up and took Katie to a scheduled FCC Play group as I had already made the commitment to do so even though I felt like death warmed over and then drug my body home where I curled up in the fetal position and let Katie vegetate through hours of mindless kiddie television next to me on the bed (which I never do) because I felt so crummy and the menfolk were both at work. Justin then came home and provided reinforcement to his dear ol' mum (man I love that kid O' mine) and hopefully tomorrow this bad boy bug will bid me a final adieu and be banished into exile to never rear it's ugly head again.

Oh, and before I go; a special thank you goes out to my good friend Dawn who nominated my blog for the "Thinking Bloggers Award". I personally feel that Dawn has surpassed me greatly in the blogging category and you can judge for yourself by checking out www.eggrollsandchopsticks.blogspot.com Dawn blogs almost daily about her life as mother to the beautiful Lily and wife to Jacob as they bear the wait (very gracefully, I might add) for their yet unnamed daughter, affectionately known to us as Chopsticks. You will enjoy her very witty and quite British writing style. I feel honored to have her as my friend. Huge hugs my friend - and just be glad that they are cyber since I am probably contagious.

Goodnight all as I slip into fevered delirium ;-)